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Todd David Bentley (born January 10, 1976) is a Canadian Christian evangelist. He was a key figure of the Lakeland Revival and was in leadership of Fresh Fire Ministries Canada until stepping down in August 2008 following accusations of immoral behavior. Life and career Early life Todd Bentley was born in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. He grew up in Gibsons, British Columbia, a small community on the western coast of Canada. As told in his autobiography, his parents divorced while he was a child, and he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.Bentley was convicted at age 15 of sexually assaulting a much younger boy two years earlier. Although the criminal records of juvenile offenders in Canada were normally protected from public disclosure under the Young Offenders Act, the nature of his conviction became public when Bentley thought he was speaking off the record to a reporter who later published his remarks in a March 2001 magazine article from The Report. Bentley publicly responded to this article in an interview that was published in Charisma. That article reported the following concerning a "revival meeting" Bentley had held in Kelowna, Canada, "The family of the assault victim had moved to Kelowna, and when they saw the posters with Bentley's name, they contacted local media. Bentley decided to address the local outcry by going on the 6 p.m. local TV-news broadcast. He admitted the crime on-air, asked for forgiveness, told viewers how ashamed he was, and how he was transformed five years after the incident by the gospel's power." Bentley later said the original article, which appeared in The Report Newsmagazine, was, in substance, true: "'They were sexual crimes,' Bentley admits. 'I was involved in a sexual assault ring. I turned around and did what happened to me. I was assaulted too.'" At 17, Bentley was hospitalized again after his fourth drug overdose. At 18, he claimed that he changed his lifestyle completely due to his conversion to Christianity. Soon after this, he began his Christian ministry. Fresh Fire Ministries In 1998, the Fresh Fire Ministry group asked Bentley to give his testimony at one of their weekly meetings. Soon after, on Mother's Day 1998 Bentley took over leadership of the group, and it became more of a revival movement. He traveled to India, Africa, South America, Mexico and Europe taking part in crusades and revivals. This became Fresh Fire Ministries Canada which was led by Bentley until the time of his resignation in August 2008 after his separation from his wife. That ministry changed its name to "Transform International" in 2009. That same year, Bentley, with the help of Rick Joyner, created a new ministry called Fresh Fire USA. Fresh Fire USA leases space adjacent to Joyner's Heritage International Ministries Conference Center, where they have a "FreshFire Healing Center" and a local church, "Secret Place Church." Leadership of Lakeland Revival Beginning on April 2, 2008, Bentley was invited by Stephen Strader, pastor of Ignited Church, Lakeland, Florida, to lead a one-week revival. The revival attracted up to 10,000 attendees nightly and around 30,000 over the week with Bentley as the primary preacher. In addition to showcasing Bentley's evangelism, the revival featured colorful light shows and power-chord Christian rock music. The Ignited Church also took a multimedia approach to publicizing the event, posting webcasts online. The revival streamed live via Ustream and received over 1 million hits in the first five weeks of transmissions. After the initial weeks, GOD TV, a Christian satellite channel, pre-empted its primetime programming and broadcast the Lakeland meetings nightly.Faith healing was a major focus of the revival, inspired by Biblical New Testament accounts of Jesus healing the sick. Healing testimonies were common at the Lakeland meetings. The hope of supernatural healing explains some of the Lakeland revivals' popularity, as there were many first-person accounts of miracles.ABC's Nightline reported that "Not a single claim of Bentley's healing powers could be independently verified." However, the Charlotte Observer reported on the same series of meetings, "The revival's media relations staff has tried to document healings. They e-mailed the Observer information on 15 people reportedly healed, providing phone numbers for each and noting that 12 had received medical verification. The Observer contacted five, plus three whose names were not provided, including Burgee. Each said God had healed them through, or related to, Bentley and the Lakeland services." Strader responded to the Nightline report with the following statement, "Strader said privacy concerns and laws forbidding the release of medical records have prevented revival officials from releasing complete information about the identities and conditions of people claiming to be healed." Bentley was also criticized for occasional violence done to participants in prior meetings. He was known to kick, hit, smack, or knock over participants. In one incident, a man was knocked over and lost a tooth. In another, an elderly woman was intentionally kicked in the face. Bentley held that the Holy Spirit led him to such actions, saying that the incidents were taken out of context and adding that miracles were happening simultaneously.On 9 July 2008, ABC News' Nightline broadcast an investigative report on Bentley, focusing on his faith healing claims, finances, and criminal past. Following the report, Bentley took time off from the revival, but returned on 18 July 2008. Five days later, Bentley and Strader announced that Bentley would be leaving the revival permanently and that his last day would be 23 August 2008. Bentley's last day of preaching that year was on Friday 8 August 2008 when he left Lakeland for his first, and only, day of "taking the revival on the road." He drew a small crowd in South Carolina during an open-air meeting at Heritage International. Three days later it was reported that Bentley, "has filed for separation from his wife, a former spokesperson said Monday, and will not return to the ongoing revival." Four days after that on August 15, 2008, the news of his resignation became public.After the news of the resignation was released, many Christian leaders released statements filled with opinions on what had gone wrong with the Lakeland Outpouring. While they all admitted there were serious issues, they did not agree on the specifics as some came from old friends, others from those trying to be neutral, and others were calling Bentley a "false prophet." Divorce and sex addiction Bentley announced his separation from his wife, Shonnah, in August 2008, and resigned from the Board of Fresh Fire. A statement released by the remaining board members said, "Todd Bentley has entered into an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff" and that he would "refrain from all public ministry for a season to receive co.... Discover the Jane Hamon popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jane Hamon books.

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